AECP Level 2 - Color Your Day

Hey there, friends!

Thanks for stopping by for another Paper Play post.  I've been thinking a lot lately about what inspires me as a card maker and paper crafter.  Most of the time it's simply the stamp or image that inspires me.  I think of a story and put it onto paper to tell it in the form of a card.  However, there are times that my inspiration comes from something as simple as the paper I'm using or a photograph that I see online.  The cards that I am sharing today were inspired by just that - one by paper and one by an online advertisement.  They were the perfect cards to feature for the AECP course that I just finished, Color Your Day.  This was another amazing course with Therese Calvird, who is one of my favorite AECP instructors.  The class focused on adding color to your projects using various mediums and techniques.  I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed it.  Let's see what I created!

Card 1 - Hydrangeas with Love

Hydrangeas are probably my most favorite flower - with tulips coming in a close second.  Altenew has some really beautiful hydrangea stamps and I have been waiting for the right project to use one . . . and this one was it.  This card was inspired by the paper that I used for the card panel.  It's a piece of adhesive-backed birch wood paper.  It's an actual very, very thin slice of wood that I received in the Spring 2023 subscription box from Your Paper Insider (click this link to find out more about the company and subscription) and I knew exactly what I wanted to create when I saw it in the box: a card that looks like the sentiment and image had been created with wood burning.  I think that I achieved it - what do you think?

I used the following items to make it:

• Altenew Garden Hydrangea Layering Stamp Set
• Altenew Woodless Coloring Pencils: Tide Blue, Desert Night, Rubellite, Limade, Shadow Creek, Moss, White
• Birch wood paper from Your Paper Insider
• Tim Holtz Distress Inks: Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, and Antique Linen
• Sakura Gelly Roll White Gel Pen
• Clear Drip Drops from Taylored Expressions

 Here's how I made it:

• Stamped the hydrangea outline onto the birch wood paper using the Walnut Stain ink.  This dark brown ink was the perfect color to replicate the look of wood burning.  I then aligned and stamped one of the hydrangea detail stamps.
• Decided where to place my three leaves and stamped the outline of each with the Walnut Stain ink.  I then aligned and stamped the leaf detail stamp for each of the leaves.
• With my image in place, I decided how I wanted to lay out my sentiment and then stamped it with the Walnut Stain ink.
• Chose to color the images with colored pencils because I wasn't sure how dark alcohol markers might look directly on the wood.  It's so much easier to control the color when using pencils, and you can easily lighten or blend with the white pencil if you need to do so.  I went around the edges of the flowers with the Limeade Green first, then added colored each flower with the Tide Blue, added pops of Rubellite to each petal, and then some darker shading with the Desert Night Blue.  I then went over each flower with the white pencil to help blend the colors together.

• Colored the leaves with a light coat of Limeade Green, then some Shadow Creek Green, and lastly some shading with Moss Green.  I went over each leaf with some white to blend the colors together.

• Added some distress & grunge to the wood with some Antique Linen and Vintage Photo distress inks and a blending brush.  TIP: remember to go with the grain of the wood when adding the grunge.  As you can se in the photo, the ink will pick up some grain marks and add this extra layer of detail to your project.

• Ran some Vintage Photo distress ink around the edges of the wood paper to add further distressing.
  
• Peeled off the adhesive backing cover and adhered the card panel to a 5" x 7" cream colored card base.
• Added some fine white lines to the flowers for some added depth and highlights.
  
• Added three drip drops to the card with some craft glue.
   

I absolutely the way it turned out!  It was fun to use colored pencils since I don't use them all that often.  The pops of green and rubellite blended into the flowers gives them so much vibrancy and really makes it one stand out.

Card 2 - Moroccan Sparkles

I recently clicked on an add on Facebook for an item at Wayfair.  Of course, that led me down the rabbit hole of spending an hour looking at items that I don't need for home!  But it was a fortuitous time suck because I came across a picture of a Moroccan rug and the colors of it inspired this card.  Here's the rug:

I loved the combination of the rusty orange with the purple, gold, and little bit of green.  This card is my interpretation of it.

I used the following to create it:

• Altenew Moroccan Lattice Cover Die 
• Altenew Sparkle Bright Layering Stamp & Die Set 
• Altenew Antique Gold Ink Spray
• Altenew Turquoise Crisp Dye Ink
• Altenew Tahitian Terrace Dual Tip Watercolor Pens: Volcano Lake, Hunter Green, Olive Green, Warm Sunshine, Chamomile, Hydrangea, Eastern Sky, Coral Berry
• Tim Holtz Rusty Hinge Distress Spray Stain
• Ohuhu Sand White Alcohol Marker
  
• Versafine Clair Black Pigment Ink
• Sizzik Clear Embossing Ink
  
• Ranger Clear Embossing Powder
• Ranger Gilded Embossing Powder
• Sakura Gelly Roll White Gel Pen
  

 Here's how I made it:

• Sprayed an A2 sized white card panel with the the Rusty Hinge spray stain.  Spritzed it with water and then dried it with my heat tool.  Adhered it to white A2 card base with double sided tape.
  
• Ran the cover die through my die cutting machine with an A2 sized piece of white card stock.  Applied Turquoise ink to the panel with a blending brush.  I then sprayed it with the Antique Gold ink.  This created a gold lattice cover with just a little bit of oxidation tarnish on it.  This came out exactly the way that I wanted it to!

• Put double sided foam tape onto the back of the lattice and adhered it to the card base.  The look of the gold and rust is so gorgeous!
• Dusted a piece of white card stock with baking powder.  Stamped the flower and leaves onto it with the Black pigment ink and then applied clear embossing powder.  Used a heat tool to set the embossing powder.  TIP: use black pigment ink, which is thicker than regular ink, and clear embossing powder instead of clear embossing ink and black embossing powder.  This way, little flecks of embossing powder won't show up on your image since it's clear!
• Colored the leaves starting with a base layer of Volcano Lake, followed by adding Hunter Green, and then some Olive Green shading.  Added some white highlights with the gel pen.
  
• Colored the flowers with a base of Hydrangea, went around the edges with some Eastern Sky, and then the inside with some Coral Berry.  Colored the inner circle with Warm Sunshine and added a little Chamomile to the center.  Added some white highlighted with the gel pen.
• Cute out the image with the coordinating die.
• Ran the sand white marker around the white areas of the due cut image.
• Adhered the image to the card using double sided foam tape.
• Stamped the sentiment words onto a scrap of cream card stock with black ink and clear embossing ink for the word sparkle.  Applied Gilded embossing powder to the word sparkle and then set it with a heat tool.
  
• Used stacking deckled edge rectangle dies to cut out the sentiments.  Adhered them to the card using double sided foam tape.

This is such a pretty card.  It just goes to show that you never know what you might be inspired by and how you may interpret it!

That wraps up today's post.  Thank you for spending some time with me today on Paper Play.  Until next time . . . be well!